I have been planning a trip to Colorado in mid-December for a little while now. It's to celebrate an event with a close relative. While I'm there I hope to get a climb of Quandary in. I was hoping to make another climb back at the end of November, but the weather, road conditions, and a transportation issue meant that I could not.
As is typical, I've been monitoring the weather on Quandary, and here is a report from one of my favorite sources... https://www.mountain-forecast.com/peaks/Quandary-Peak/forecasts/4348
The top image is from the summit, and the bottom image is for about where the bridge is near the "closed for restoration" sign. So not too bad for wind, temps, or wind chill. I'm in the middle of a little boot "quandary" (haha) since I've outgrown all my double boots. When the chills go below zero I prefer to wear light double boots, like my Scarpa Phantom 6000 Mountaineering Boot, which is what I did when I climbed Greys with Todd Gilles prior to Elbrus Race 2013. It was quite a bit below zero F that day and I was just fine.
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| Salomon Boots I'll be wearing |
The warmest "mountain" type boots I have right now that fit at all are my Salomon S-Lab X-Alp Carbon Boots (link is to a newer version than I have). They should be sufficient. I wore them last year on a winter climb of Quandary, but had issues with socks and slipping around inside on the descent as the slide locker loosened up. I'll have to manage that I suppose, in the worst case possibly even unzipping and tightening the slide locker at the summit, in the cold, in the wind, prior to descending.
I'll be packing up my gear over the next couple of days, so stay in touch here to get the full scoop as I prepare for whatever my goals evolve into over the next few months.
